


The tournament approaches (Hunith’s problem)

by Panatlantic



Series: 99 problems [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alpha Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/M, M/M, Omega Merlin (Merlin)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:54:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26793217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Panatlantic/pseuds/Panatlantic
Summary: Hint: its merlin
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: 99 problems [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948336
Comments: 4
Kudos: 199





	The tournament approaches (Hunith’s problem)

“Betrayed!!” Bemoaned Merlin.

“She only wants what is best for you Merlin. Now hold still.” Instructed Gaius as he applied a compress of dock leaves to Merlin’s naked posterior.

“Should I help?” Volunteered Arthur flexing his fingers. Because he was going to be good to his servants from this day forth (a resolution not at all cemented by seeing Merlin’s bare bottom).

“You!” Accused Merlin, his attention now focused again on Arthur. Arthur cringed. “You owe me four pence!”

“That’s your biggest concern right now? Four pence?” An astonished Arthur supplied.

“I paid in good faith that you were a professional!” Cried Merlin before muttering, “I knew it! That thing was not normal at all! I suspected at the time…”

“You decided on your own that I was a.. a prostitute! I never told you that!”

“What was I supposed to think when you were in a tavern wearing a shirt with more ruffles than a girls petticoat?” Squeaked Merlin, pointing an accusatory finger. “Exposing your collar bones no less!”

Arthur gasped.

“He does have a point sire, you do tend to…” Gaius was unable to put it into words, so instead he puffed out his chest and pouted to try to get his point across. 

“I do not!” Denied Arthur crossly.

“And you never once said that you were a Prince!”

“And you never told me you were a virgin, in fact you very deliberately said you weren’t. Repeatedly!”

“You believed me!” Accused Merlin, working himself up. “Oh it’s fine for you! You’re not the one that’s found out they’ve been abandoned by their mum, has to work as a slave and that currently has an old man fondling their rump!”

“I told you, you didn’t need the nettles Merlin, you did that on your own!” Fussed Gaius, “and Hunith just wants to know you’re somewhere safe. The King sent a messenger saying you’d been ravished by bandits and it’s not safe for you to return.” As Merlin still looked suspicious he added, “She can hardly go against the Kings decree.”

“It was four pence Merlin, and you didn’t even pay for the room before you left so technically you owe me…”

“And I’m sure Arthur will be a very kind master. “ Interrupted Gaius, who having some working knowledge of omegas knew that logic was perhaps not going to be Merlin’s strongest point. “In fact I’m reasonably sure he’s going to be busy leading the knights on patrols to find bandits for the next few weeks, so how much work can it be?”

* * *

Much like Merlin, Morgana was an omega. This could probably explain why she normally would be wandering amongst the merrymakers, slipping the odd draught of who-knew-what into someone or others drink under the misguided belief she was invisible, and not at all driven by alpha reasoning that it was cute when an omega tried to poison you.

In fact it was considered quite the honor and no one was considered a true Knight of Camelot (post humously or otherwise) until the Lady Morgana has slipped a dose Or two of aconite into their wine.

But tonight, Morgana was sulking.

Clearly this was because Uther had chopped off some buggers head earlier in the day for using sorcery and not at all because another omega had invaded her territory. Normally such a thing would be tolerated because Uther would snap the offender up and mark them, thus eliminating the competition, but for whatever reason the boy had remained unmarked.

A single unmarked omega in her territory was simply unacceptable.

* * *

When he had been born, Merlin had been a surprise, but a pleasant one. Hunnith had not even know she was pregnant when Balinor had had to leave.

Merlin was not like the other children.

As a baby, Merlin rarely cried (a blessing!), but when his first birthday came around he did not speak, and she worried he might be a simpleton, but with the optimism of a mother she justified to herself that children developed at their own rate, and Merlin was such a beautiful baby.

As a toddler he toilet trained himself in record time (a blessing!). He made himself useful and helped Hunith keep house and collect herbs. Yet despite being intelligent, he did not speak. Being a herb woman with some little healing knowledge, she worried he might be a mute. Still Merlin was quite capable of communicating his own needs with a series of increasingly complicated gestures.

At harvest, when all of the able bodied were required for the reaping, she left Merlin with an elderly couple without reservation, for if he was quiet Merlin, was a good child. At sunset she returned to pick Merlin up and was welcomed by the couple who declared excitedly they had no idea Merlin was so chatty. Hunith was confused, but not a stranger to sarcasm, and presumed the latter.

What Hunnith lacked was a knowledge of omegas (not suprising really, very little was documented at the time). Merlin was always communicating, it was simply a matter of her being the wrong designation to understand, unlike the alpha woman, Hunnith, like the majority of Ealdor, was a beta.

To cut a long story short, what came across as a series of grunts, hisses and the occasional key word to a beta was often quite an eloquent speech when received by another omega or alpha.

* * *

_Merlin…. Merlin…_

Merlin woke the next morning sure he had heard someone calling for him, but shrugged it off. He had a bedchamber off the Physicians Chambers that was… adequate (okay… maybe it was better than the one room hut he usually shared with his mother, their two goats and seven geese - the roof didn’t even leak).

“I brought you clean clothes.” Mentioned Gaius when Merlin finally decided to join him. Merlin’s clothes had been ripe with whatever Merlin had rolled in on his way to the castle as part of his cover story, and frankly Gaius was not prepared to hypothesize on exactly what that was until he saw what color flames the clothing produced when burnt. However omegas were exhibitionists by nature so Merlin simply sat down naked at the table and helped himself to a bowl of porridge.

“I was thinking you could put the clothing on first, Merlin.” Suggested Gaius. Being a physician and a beta he had of course seen this kind of behavior before, so didn’t judge Merlin, but he also could not afford one of the castles alphas to burst into his chambers (as they often did) and accuse him of impropriety.

“Itchy.” Pouted Merlin around a mouthful of porridge, slipping back to miniverbal communication with the lack of an alpha. Gaius scribbled down some notes. Most of the omegas he had had contact with in the past were nobles that had been shunted off on arrival (usually to somewhere near Uther’s chambers) and he was determined to collect data.

“I’ll give you a sandwich if you put on your clothes now!” Wheedled Gaius. Merlin looked up in delight, then frowned with narrowed eyes. “It has ham!” Thankfully Hunith’s letter had been quite direct on Merlin’s motivators, all of which involved food. Merlin obliged and put on the trousers and tunic, then returned for the sandwich.

“So… did you sleep well Merlin?”

Merlin grunted. “Floor talks.”

“I see.” Said Gaius, this gave him quite a bit of insight into Merlin stomping around in the middle of the night and cursing at the floor. Omegas were dreadfully sensitive about the strangest things. “Would a rug help?”

“Yes.” Said Merlin. Because it might not actually stop the whispers but the bare floor had been cold and a rug couldn’t hurt things. Especially if it was a soft one.

“Good, good. Now best hurry along, you need to wake up Arthur and get him ready for the day. That’s part of your duties now.” Merlin frowned. “As his personal physician, it pains me that Arthur doesn’t eat enough breakfast, it’s a shame to waste all those leftovers…” Merlin smiled.

“Work!” Declared Merlin springing up from the table.

* * *

“Arthur…? Arthur….?” Whispered Merlin, lightly pressing on Arthurs shoulder, hot breathe ghosting across his cheek and ear. “If you don’t wake up, I’m going to eat your sausage.” Strangely this was not effective, getting nothing more than a groan from the prince who continued to sleep.

Merlin was never one to make idle threats.

Having followed through he yelled “Rise and shine!” Pulling back the curtains with gusto. “Time to get up!”

“Merlin?!?” Squeaked Arthur. Arthur had been having the best dream ever about… well… never mind, point was he had to discretely cover his nethers. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m your new manservant. This is my job now.” Replied Merlin, slathering a chunk of bread generously with butter before wrapping it in a cloth and putting it in his pocket. “Your breakfast is served, my liege.”

“Where’s the rest of it? The meat?”

“Hmm? You probably just ate it already. Mindless eating is a real concern amongst the rich. No wonder you’re so...” Suggested Merlin. “Chunky.” He squeezed Arthur’s bicep to punctuate the point.

“Chunky? I’m the prince of Camelot, you can’t talk to me like that!”

“Sorry. First day. No wonder you’re so chunky, _My Lord_. ” Corrected Merlin.

“You’re a really terrible servant Merlin.”

Merlin preened.  
  


* * *

If Arthur wasn’t so fat, maybe he wouldn’t need so much armor, mused Merlin carrying Arthurs armor to the tournament. Now he just had to find Guinevere and get her to show him how to put it on Arthur.

_“… prat … corset…”_ Merlin indicated the stack of armor with a flourish.

Luckily, as one of the few beta that spent a great deal of time with Lady Morgana as her personal maid, Gwen was completely able to interpret this and not take offense.

Translation: “I’m here to learn how to dress Arthur in his armor.”

“Merlin, half this armor is missing, where are the voiders? The helmet?” Merlin froze. He’d hoped no one would notice a few pieces missing, there were just so many and they were so heavy…

“ _…guts covered…”_ Merlin suggested slyly, pointing out the hauberk then making a chopping motion with his arm. One less arm would mean less armor to carry too.

Translation: “I figured he only needed to cover the vitals. Lots of people survive losing an arm, yeah?”

“You can’t allow the Prince of Camelot to lose an arm in a tournament!”

Merlin’s argument that Arthur could afford to lose an arm since he had two of them was clearly falling on deaf ears. Trust a blacksmith’s daughter to be so righteous about armor. Really she could have more of a care for Gaius who would probably be out of a job if not for the odd tournament amputation.

Shortly George arrived with the rest of the armor (presumably it had taken him a while to pry the gauntlet out of the privy where Merlin had shoved it).

There were two ways to deal with omega. Keep them busy or keep them in bed. Left with too much free time omega had the ability to cause chaos and destruction in the most unexpected ways (case study: Lady Morgana). Unfortunately they also had the attention span of a goldfish (or fortunately in the case of Morgana, as she could generally be distracted long enough for Gaius to issue an antidote). So while Merlin had been given a 'job' he was in fact also assigned a servant whose job was to walk behind him and complete the tasks that Merlin started. Luckily, George was a beta and did not care as long as he got paid.

Gwen shrugged and proceeded to teach Merlin about the armor.


End file.
